Shunryu Suzuki Roshi said ‘To realize things are one is a very sympathetic understanding. But how to treat things, even to treat people, one by one, each in a different way, with full care, that I think is our practice.'
The deep realization of Buddhist practice when we really experience intimacy with 'the other', is that there is no me in here and you out there. This is not even remotely a frightening discovery, but a strangely enlarging and affirming one.
Yet this is where practice begins, not where it ends, for the implications of this for our fundamental non-separateness from the earth and every aspect of our living space, and from every human and other sentient being alive with us in all the moments of our lives, are great.
If we don't move in the world to actualize and act upon this realization, the great teachings of Buddhism can devolve in the direction of a small, unimportant self-help affair.
Especially at this extraordinary time of crunch point for the earth, Zen must get off its bum and stand up in the street to fight for justice for others and for the planet. Engaged practice means that beyond the important matter of the happiness and peace we can learn to realise, in the midst of all that life presents, lies the even more engaging and enlarging question for our lives - of how we may offer that in the service of all beings.
And whether it can really be happiness, or peace, if we don't.
The koan of engaged practice is very simple, which makes it challenging in the best kind of way. It is: 'Take care of each other'.
